The folks at SO have been generous enough to offer 1 member from each SE community sponsorship to a community related conference. In exchange, all they ask is that you promote the community at the conference. As they put it:

spend a little bit of time speaking / networking / blogging / sharing during your time there, and of course mention our fine ... community here.

So, which startup related conference should we select for our lucky community member to attend?

Edit: (In response to Michael's comment.)

This is what Jeff says in his announcement of this initiative (linked above):

Sending community members to conferences is something we are very serious about, because we believe so deeply in learning. Going to a conference to speak or participate — and bringing that experience back to our community — is a great way to share what you’ve learned. That’s the very principle our communities are founded on, this idea that we’re all there to learn from each other.

And that’s all that we ask in return — that these community members share their experiences with their respective communities, and the greater internet, in some way...

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7 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

I’ll start off by suggesting the Business of Software Conference. It’s an awesome event that has one of the best speaker line-ups around. Previous year speakers include Joel Spolsky, Dharmesh Shah, and Jason Cohen. It will be held Oct 23-26, 2011 in Boston.

I’ll also volunteer myself as the guinea pig for this first round :-)

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This is a great conference, but given that the conference was a Joel on Software sponsored conference, I think the audience is already mostly aware of Joel/Dharmesh/this set, etc. It would probably be more useful to pick an audience that would be new to the site to help it grow. – Michael Pryor Mar 9 '11 at 13:20
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You'd be surprised. There was a decent amount of people last year that hadn't heard of answers.onstartups.com. Most people are familiar with StackOverflow, but that's where it ends. Those that are aware of our site (or the other 2.0 sites) are actually a much smaller subset. Also, Jeff's post places much more importance on the learning aspect of attending the conference than it does on the promotion. (I'll edit the question with his exact words.) And as far as learning goes, BoS is probably one of the best. It's possible BoS isn't the perfect venue, but I think it's definitely a big contender. – Zuly Gonzalez Mar 12 '11 at 0:05
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We have decided to sponsor you for the Business of Software Conference. That's a small 'thank you' for all the hard work you have done with this site. It sounds like a great conference and you are the perfect person to represent us. Have a great time and let everyone over there know about the great resource you folks are building here. I will be contacting you shortly. – Robert Cartaino Jun 16 '11 at 19:00
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@Robert: Wow, thank you! That is very generous! My sincerest thank you to the entire Stack Exchange team. I really appreciate this opportunity, and am very much looking forward to the conference. You guys are awesome! – Zuly Gonzalez Jun 17 '11 at 3:36
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Congratulations Zuly! – Ricardo Jun 25 '11 at 4:17
Yes, congrats Zuly. Though I have to say I am really disappointed with the lack of openness and communication from the SE team about this. – TimJ Dec 4 '11 at 3:19

TechCrunch Disrupt - May 23 - New York

This past September, over 2,000 people assembled in San Francisco to watch as 24 companies launched their innovative new businesses at TechCrunch Disrupt. In addition, nearly 70 speakers and panelists graced the stage, including IAC’s Barry Diller, Digg’s Kevin Rose, Google’s Marissa Mayer and Bradley Horowitz, Ron Conway, Peter Thiel and surprise visits by Google CEO Eric Schmidt and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

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The Founder Conference - May 3 - Silicon Valley

The Founder Conference 2011 will take place at the Center for Performing Arts of Mountain View on May 3rd, 2011. Topics range from finding co-founders, how to pitch to investors, the new trends with super-angels, create buzz when you launch, and more.

Speakers include Naval Ravikant (AngelList), Adeo Ressi (TheFunded), Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble, Tim Young (About.me), George Zachary (Charles River Ventures).

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I'm actually the organizer of the Founder Conference. OnStartups is indeed a logical partner. What's the next step? – Alain Raynaud Mar 11 '11 at 17:58

(A friend who knows I'm interested in startups forwarded me the link below. Sharing here.)

2011 MicroConf - The Conference for Self-Funded Startups - June 6 & 7 - Las Vegas

What is MicroConf 2011? MicroConf is a two-day conference focused on self-funded startups and single founder software companies. A limited supply of discounted pre-launch tickets will be available soon; sign up for pre-launch below.

Who Should Attend? Anyone launching a startup with no outside funding who wants to learn from, and hang out with, 225 of today's leading founders and entrepreneurs.

Who's Behind MicroConf? MicroConf is hosted by Rob Walling and Mike Taber of the Startups for the Rest of Us podcast and Micropreneur.com.

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Startup 2011 - New York - May 10

http://www.businessinsider.com/startup2011

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GeeknRolla - March 30 - UK

Annual conference to bring together Europe’s technology startups to network with investors and talk about how they create and build themselves.

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Lean Startup Conference - May 5 - Vancouver

Who should attend?

Anyone who is: either working for or planning to work for a start-up losing sleep because of having a brilliant idea and wanting to see it implemented tasked with designing new features and wants to know how to validate ideas and business assumptions with customers wanting to reduce waste and amplify learning curious to know what all the excitement is about

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